Sirius SIR-GM1 Installation w/ Pics

[Drew Slothower]

Here's my install of the SIR-GM1. I've been waiting on this order since last March! Worth the wait. Came today, and I had to get it installed right away!

I needed assistance with the power install, so I went to Circuit City for some help. The tech told me that on GM cars, the Orange wire (connecting to the radio) is the wire of choice for power, the black wire is used for the ground.

Once I got through that, it was very easy to route the antenna around the side and up the back of the hatch.

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00663.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00664.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00665.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00666.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00667.jpg

[Drew Slothower]

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00668.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00669.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00671.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00672.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00673.jpg

[Drew Slothower]

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00673.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00674.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~dslothower/SIRGM1/DSC00675.jpg

[Sewie]

Very cool. :cool:

You can actually mount the antenna under the roof rail trim. I did that when I borrowed my friends portable tuner for a road trip. Completely hidden and I never had a problem with the signal. Some other people on here have done it that way too I believe.

[Mike E]

Nice job!

[raptorman53]

I saw one on crutchfield.com the other day. You could either order it with the antenna or just the box

[Drew Slothower]

The manual says you cannot use the existing XM antenna.

Here's the unit I got on Crutchfield:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-XzpsIORUi6u/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=sir%2Dgm1&i=607SIRGM1

If you have XM already, then it is one wire to connect. If you don't have XM (like me), you need to connect power and a passthrough cable. If you don't mind pulling apart your dash, its an easy installation as long as you can find the power! (Orange +, Black -)

[f5fstop]

B+ goes into the back of the radio, as well as a ground, and you can tap into these wires in a few seconds. Or you can tap into any of the accessory plugs, they are also hot at all times. For ignition Hot, you can tap into the yellow wire to the rear wiper/washer switch.

[NM H3]

Could you just splice, and tap into, the existing antenna wire?

The manual says you cannot use the existing XM antenna.

Here's the unit I got on Crutchfield:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-XzpsIORUi6u/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=sir%2Dgm1&i=607SIRGM1

If you have XM already, then it is one wire to connect. If you don't have XM (like me), you need to connect power and a passthrough cable. If you don't mind pulling apart your dash, its an easy installation as long as you can find the power! (Orange +, Black -)

[usetosellhummer]

Wish i knew. no readout on songs right? I will keep my s50 on the side.

[NM H3]

Could you just splice, and tap into, the existing antenna wire?

FYI Using the existing antenna wire did not work for me. I received no reception when I went this way. Once I switched to the Sirius antenna it worked perfect. Oh well...

[bjc]

Great work. It's just that when I saw this:

25839


All I could think of was "Da Shocker"::D


25840

[DaBobby]

The manual says you cannot use the existing XM antenna.

Here's the unit I got on Crutchfield:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-XzpsIORUi6u/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?search=sir%2Dgm1&i=607SIRGM1

If you have XM already, then it is one wire to connect. If you don't have XM (like me), you need to connect power and a passthrough cable. If you don't mind pulling apart your dash, its an easy installation as long as you can find the power! (Orange +, Black -)

Has anyone tried this antenna adapter (http://www.tss-radio.com/sirius-antenna-adapter-p-3883.html)to be able to use the factory xm antenna instead of having to wire the sirius antenna through the truck?

[thatchman1]

Wish i knew. no readout on songs right? I will keep my s50 on the side.
I had this kit installed today and I get all channel ID's, song titles, etc. on the OEM Navi screen. The only thing that's a bit foul is that it still calls it XM, and the category browsing is off. I never used category browsing except when I was new to sat radio, since then I just go to channel.

So far so good.

I am interested in the XM to Sirius adaptor, if my GM antenna has XM built in. I don't know how to tell the difference between the ones that didn't and the ones that did.

[NightRain]

I installed this kit this morning in my H3 without XM and I have to say it was pretty easy. Took me about 90mins including activation. I'd say about 1/3rd of that time was mounting the antenna and hiding it, and about 15 minutes finding my credit card and calling to activate.

I'm very pleased with it using my stock stereo. It gives me SR1 and SR2 each with 6 presets. I got this mostly for the NFL stuff, but will also listen to some music channels. I get a pretty good display to let me know information about the content playing, it isn't perfect because it is limited by the H3's stock display.

I wasn't sure where to mount the receiver at first, but I ended up mounting it on the back wall behind the upper part of the head unit, mostly behind the air vents just about the head until. I used two sided mounting tabs (about 9-12 of them) and stuck it on there good. I ran the antenna wire up the plastic on the passenger side floor and behind the glove box over to the receiver. Then the plug to the headunit came from the left side of the receiver (drivers side) down to the head unit. I used quick taps to tap into the orange and black wires for power like found here: http://www.delcity.net/delcity/servlet/catalog?parentid=9111&page=1

If I were to do it again I could do it in under an hour for sure becuase I could easily hook it up inside and mount it in under 10 mins now, this time I spent at least 10 mins finding the right place to mount it.

Over all I'm very pleased with this product, an optional display would be nice for those who would like a more detailed display. What I would like the most is a remote though, 12 pre-sets isn't much and changing channels is a bit of a pain. I set my presets with close channels in mind. (for example my girlfriend likes country so I let here have 1 preset for that SR2-6, she can select that and then can go up 1 or 2 channels if she wants a different country channel).
I find it would be easier if I could use a remote to type 124 for NFL radio instead of having to jump through channels. It can be annoying when you want to jump around live NFL games since they are all over the place on the channel lineup. No last channel on GM headunit is a drawback too, I would have liked a remote for that too.

Overall I give it a passing grade

8/10 for ease of install (could have had an adapter so we don't need to cut into stock power)

9/10 for clarity and quality, rivals my MP3 cd's, better than FM (although talk radio sometimes seems lower quality), but not quite as good as original CD's. Equal to stock XM I've heard in other GM vechicles.

9/10 Visual appeal, antenna is hardly noticible and headunit retains stock appearance making for a clean setup

7/10 for user interface, this mostly falls on GM since the headunit doesn't have much flexibility and stock XM wouldn't control any better. I would have liked a remote even if it was optional a IR lead could easily be mounted to allow a remote interface to work, or even better make it bluetooth.

Overall I give it a 8.5/10 after my initial usage, I haven't had any siginal drops or anything yet and I'm very pleased so far. I recommend this highly.